Brandon, Henry

▪ 1994

      Czech-born British journalist (b. March 9, 1916, Liberec, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary—d. April 20, 1993, London, England), as chief Washington correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times (1950-83), gained personal access to nearly everyone of power and influence in the U.S. government and achieved a uniquely intimate perspective on Western politics throughout the 40-year cold war. Brandon was educated at the Universities of Prague and Lausanne, Switz, and moved to London in 1939. He joined The Sunday Times as a freelance contributor, then served as a war correspondent (1943-45), Paris correspondent (1945-46), and roving diplomatic correspondent (1947-49) before moving to Washington. A man of natural charm and discretion, Brandon cultivated close ties with U.S. presidents and Cabinet members. The extent of his political knowledge was so well known that Pres. Richard Nixon ordered his phone tapped in 1969 despite the journalist's personal friendship with Henry Kissinger, then Nixon's national security adviser. In 1983 Brandon retired from The Sunday Times, of which he had been associate editor from 1963, but he remained at the centre of things as a columnist for the New York Times World Syndicate and a guest scholar with the Brookings Institution (1983-93). Brandon's books include The Retreat of American Power (1973) and Special Relationships (1989). He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1985.

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